71 240z compression rod issue

[rubrbulits]

So here's what I did. A friend of mine owns a machine shop and made these for me out of mild steel. Amazing what a 12 pack can get you. I still can't figure out how the original peices were missing, but the rest of the metal on the TC box and frame rail are in excellent shape. Although this car had its fair share of rust, it's not in all the typical places. So anyway, I drilled four 5/16" holes in each peice and welded them on. Good to go! And yes Enigma, I might just heed your warning about the urethane bushings. Iv'e read numerous threads about how these bushings are a risky application on the compression rods. I threw in an extra pic of the rest of my front end, just because.

[=Enigma=]

You now have the nicest TC rod bushing cups in the world.

Don't forget to grind down those welds so they don't tear up your nice new bushings.

Edited January 17, 2010 by =Enigma=

[rubrbulits]

Ground down smooth and painted.

[tlorber]

" I might just heed your warning about the urethane bushings. Iv'e read numerous threads about how these bushings are a risky application on the compression rods.

I agree with this concern. This fitting is truly meant as a pivot point. In fact I was looking at an old 944 the other day, which, along with many other cars I'm sure, has a tc arm with 2 hinge points, one of which is the rear anchoring at the same location as our bushing/washer connection. I don't know why Nissan didn't engineer a true hinge instead of a steel rod inside rubber, but that would have been a much more stable connection.

If you look at most of the urethane bushings we put in, they are at rotation points, and are not really made to flex much. It seems to me that the flex at this connection would be very "reluctant" and if the rod were to give instead, you can tell by the geometry of the suspension that the results could be disastrous.

I'm not meaning to open a can of worms here but I'm putting in rubber at this bushing, even though I got urethane ones with my kit.

Edited January 17, 2010 by tlorber
typo

[kenz240z]

I've had urethane TC bushings in my '73 for about 5 years now and have not had any problems with them. The car doesn't get driven a lot, but when I do drive it, it tends to be spirited driving on twisty mountain roads.